Tapping Ann Arbor’s Sap
Sap starts to flow from a metal spile on a sugar maple tree at County Farm Park. The hump midway along the spile provides a place to hook your bucket and collect the sap.
A brutally cold wind buffets the group huddled around a sugar maple at the Washtenaw County Farm Park. They’re looking at a small metal device that’s been gently hammered into a hole drilled in the tree. Faye Stoner, a park naturalist for the county, sounds doubtful. “It’s probably too cold,” she says.
But wait – a kid in the group cries out: “It dripped … it dripped!” And sure enough, a globule slowly rolls off the end of the spout.
The maple sap is rising, and two dozen very cold people are learning about what Stoner calls “a gift from nature.” [Full Story]